A quick look over my blog from the last year shows that I'm presenting myself in interesting ways. The loyal blog reader knows about lots of stuff in my life, from my move from SoCal to Seattle, to my minor obsession with typefaces. They know that I am involved in an open source visualization package, and they know that I travelled to far away places.
Which is why I was startled at how startled I was to be approached at CSCW a few weeks ago. "Hi, I've read your blog."
It was a little weirder than that, actually. The question was, Have you ever had someone who reads your blog come up to you at a conference maybe, and tell you, 'Hi! I've read your blog.'
The answer was no. Until that moment, at which point, it was yes.
And I got this weird, profoundly uncomfortable feeling that I'm still trying to figure out. It's weird: the blog is filled with all sorts of information that I'm fine with being public, and, indeed, I post it because I want it said, and read. And I've been blogging stuff that outsiders might find of interest because I'm ok with blurring part of my social world with part of my technical world.
Then again, I have a vision of who is reading this. I know most of my readers, I think, in person; I have a few who have wandered by at various times. But I suppose a mysterious other (the hypothetical person who buys my blog at auction perhaps?) will know a lot more about me than I am ready for them to know.
Facts, individually, are weak little things. Facts, collectively, make my life well-considered (and, thus, to Socrates, worth living) and well-examined and well --
Well, exposed.
December 1, 2004 11:21 AM | TrackBack | in Data and DocumentsUm, yeah.
I had that experience. After posting about a song, someone who'd I'd never suspected of reading my blog, offered to let me borrow the CD. It wasn't so much that he reads my blog (still does) , it's that he was reading and I didn't know it.
It brings up interesting issues to be sure.
The weirdest example of this in recent memory was the discovery of Maya Keyes's blog.
For those not familiar with the story, Maya's dad is Alan Keyes, former presidential candidate and Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois in 2004 who ran so far with the anti-gay, anti-abortion platform even Republicans were a bit turned off by the experience.
Maya, on the other hand, seems to be your normal angst-ridden young lesbian. Oops.
Her blog was quite the discovery, as was her (now-ex) girlfriend's. Both were and remain compelling reads into the psyche of complex and intelligent youth facing bizarre situations. Maya, like her father, is pro-life and devoutly faithful and worked on her dad's campaign, but is also an open lesbian anarchist Nader supporter; her ex Bria an anarchist non-racist punk/skinhead with recurring mental health and self-injury issues and coping with living with a devout and controlling mother.
It was engrossing but disturbingly voyeuristic to follow how these two young women and many of their Xanga friends coped with being thrust into a minor publicity storm - especially since the storm was entirely of their own making. Both eventually came to terms with the fact that their musings - who they figured were simply going out to a cadre of Xanga peers - were suddenly public domain, and that being so public came with some unexpected and difficult consequences.
I find it very incredibly interesting that blogging still holds the illusion of providing a private channel of self-expression, even though you know well that the Googlebot visits to potentially broadcast the innermost thoughts and feelings you've written about to a potentially global audience.
In the end, the expectation of privacy isn't a total illusion. Most blogs, after all, are essentially uninteresting to the world and thus sparsely read save for an intimate circle. It's never private, but the audience is both limited and tightly-knit, so it's easy to fall into the assumption it is more or less so.
Of course, if your dad's running for office and making headlines by suggesting that people like you are "selfish hedonists", you kind of have to expect that someone will figure out the connection eventually, especially if your writings subvert his message entirely.
It does make you think about what kind of information you're likely to share in the blogosphere, to be sure. That noted, I've shared a considerable amount that I'm sure could be traced back to me. Luckily, I'm consistent enough in my self-concept that it shouldn't be a problem. I hope.
Just a few thoughts triggered by your post. I've enjoyed lurking on your blog for some time now, and I've read through some of your research links, so perhaps I'm stalking you as well. Interesting work though.
Congratulations on the finishing the PhD. Nearing the end of that battle myself, hopefully. Hope to have my dissertation draft up on my site within a week or so, so feel free to spy right back if your sudden realization of self-disclosure's getting you paranoid.
Posted by: Michael Jones at December 2, 2004 09:02 PMIt would be nice if LJ and other forums could keep track of who visited. Or even that there were visits. I could do this if I ran a blog on my own server, but I like the LJ feature set too much.
Posted by: Paul at December 3, 2004 10:14 AM